Several area girls earn medals at state swim meet

EVANSTON – Sometimes, it’s your year.

Sometimes, it’s not.

The 2008 prep girls swimming season definitely fell into the latter category as no area entrants came close to winning a title at the IHSA state meet that was held here Friday and Saturday at Evanston High.

Nearly all our qualifiers for state were eliminated during Friday’s preliminary competition, in which the top 12 performers in each event lived to swim again another day.

The top six qualifiers on Friday swam for championships in each event on Saturday, while Nos. 7-12 in qualifying competed on Saturday in a consolation race.

Here’s how our area girls did on Saturday:

* In the 100-yard breaststroke, Libertyville junior Maggie Boling took third in the consolation race and finished ninth overall.

* In the 500 freestyle, Stevenson senior Tori Alland finished fifth in the state in a time of 5:02.29. The winning time was 4:47.61.

* In diving, Stevenson junior Kerrin Seymour placed sixth with a total of 382.85 points and Mundelein senior Taylor Reckert was seventh with a 369.45 score. The winning total was 422.25.

* In the 200 individual medley, Antioch sophomore Dominique Bessette finished 10th overall in 2:08.63, and Stevenson senior Erin Cunningham was 12th in 2:10.22. The winning time was 2:01.3.

* In the 200 freestyle, Stevenson’s Allard finished ninth overall in 1:52.89.

The team competition was won by Rosary High, an all-girls school in Aurora. New Trier and Hinsdale Central tied for second but were not close to the winner.